


one hundred thousand ways i love you

by poalimal



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Infinity War? I don't know her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 06:36:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15723969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poalimal/pseuds/poalimal
Summary: Who doesn't love a good wedding?





	one hundred thousand ways i love you

 

It was the sixth year of the reign of T'Challa the King, Bridger of Worlds and Beloved of Bast, and General Okoye, favoured and fearsome even amongst the Dora, and James Buchanan Barnes, the American, were to be married.

Princess Shuri was delighted. Of course she was delighted! One of her oldest friends was marrying one of her dearest friends. What wasn't there to be delighted about?

'It is only,' she said, 'that it is happening so quickly. I did not even know the two of you were seeing each other!' Well, Bucky had been spending a lot more time in the palace lately. Perhaps this explained it.

Though. Bucky could've explained it to her himself. It wasn't as though she were a child anymore.

'Are you well, Shuri?' Okoye asked, staring at her worriedly in the mirror. 'Have you hurt your hand?'

Shuri shrugged off the question cheerfully. 'Ah, it is only a little sting! I must have pricked my finger on something,' she said, returning to her task. 'Ahh, 'koye,' she tsk'ed, 'your hair is so thick! Are you sure you want to shave it after the ceremony?'

Okoye nodded decisively. 'The time of grief-growing is over,' she said. 'Five years my W'Kabi has laid in the earth, a traitor to the blood. From this time on, I will carry the memory of him in my heart.'

'And what does,' said Shuri, braiding carefully, 'what does-- James think about it?' She had thought-- she had gotten the impression somehow that Bucky... Well. That he liked long hair.

Okoye looked at her. 'I have not asked him,' she said, somewhat severely. 'It is not his decision.'

'Of course not,' Shuri said, chastened. She forgot sometimes. It was not just HYDRA that had crafted Bucky into a stranger. 'I know he is,' she fumbled, 'an outsider, and he may not understand--'

'It is not because he is an outsider,' said Okoye, turning in her seat. Even with no paint or smear on her face, Shuri thought she looked like the loveliest woman in all the world. 'It is because he is a man. And a man is accustomed to availing himself of the women around him. Never mind the intention; the end is all pain.' She touched Shuri's hand, carefully, her palm calloused and kind. 'I wish you did not have to learn this.'

Ah - that sting again. 'Who says I do not already know?' Shuri said, lightly. Perhaps she knew it even better than Okoye. After all, from a young age, Okoye had had no blood but the Dora - but Shuri had always had a king and a king-to-come as family. And she had known it always, in the hundred thousand ways she saw the Queen cede to keep the peace; in the hundred thousand ways she was asked to do the same.

Okoye's eyes gleamed, and she looked at Shuri in a way she never had before. 'One day, you will choose someone,' she said, 'man, woman, it does not matter. And you will not even think to ask their permission for who you want to be. For they will be with you every step of the way.'

For a moment, one single moment, Shuri allowed herself to feel husked-out and bitter and absolutely tired of being talked down to. It was only a moment - and even that might've been too much.

'Ahh, you know me, Okoye,' she said, chuckling. 'I have always preferred walking on my own. Come now, let me call back in Kuhle and Noxo - I was too confident, I do not think I will be able to finish before dark!'

 

* * *

 

Okoye and Bucky were separated for eight days, as Bast dictated, they went through the Feast of Poetry and the rites of blood, they chose T'Challa as witness to their moonlight vows - but they broke with tradition after that, and had an American-style ceremony. Technically, they were already married--  
  
'--but it's just fun, isn't it,' Bucky said, swinging Shuri around with a laugh. It was hard to make fun of his goofy smile when he looked so happy. 'Coming together, you know. Something beautiful.'

'Yes,' said Shuri, trying to concentrate on the steps. 'It is a very beautiful ceremony.'

Bucky peered at her, smile dimming some. 'You all right, Rih?' he murmured. 'You're quiet tonight.'

And Shuri felt that sting again in her heart, trying to find the words to explain. Was it that she was tired? Something in her was awake, certainly, and it simply would not sleep.

And while she struggled, somewhere, further on in the crowd, a beautiful voice sang out, ' _Where is my husband?_ '

Everyone paused in their dancing, dissolving into cheers and chitts and clapping. Bucky's Americans just looked confused.

Laughing, Bucky turned around and let Shuri go. ' _Your husband is here, my love!_ ' he called into the cup of his hands. Before today, he had not spoken English in years - and still his accent showed up so easy, after just a few drinks. Ah... all these little truths she had gathered about him over the years. Shuri wondered where they would go, where she would put them. ' _Where, where have you gone?_ '

' _O, make way, make way!_ ' the voice answered. The crowd cleared, everyone forming a loud, laughing circle around the edges of the floor - and there Okoye was, right in the middle, resplendent with happiness. The most beautiful woman in the room. ' _I have come_ ,' and Bucky swung her up into his arms, breaking the script, ' _my husband, my life_ ,' they kissed, ' _my love_.'

From this time on, Shuri thought, I will carry the memory of him in my heart.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This bowled me over today, and I couldn't not write it. Some notes:
> 
> \- No one is speaking English in this. Okoye and Bucky in the final scene speak in italics because they are both quoting one of the last stanzas of a famous Wakandan poem, _Beno and Ife_. Because I'm never going to write it, the basic summary is that a River Tribe soldier (Beno) and a Jabari poet (Ife) fall in love before The Schism (what the Jabari call The Great Betrayal - the time when the Jabari retreated out from under the kingship of the tyrant Panther-King). The two wed in secret, though it is forbidden, and are both sentenced to death when their treachery is discovered. The tale of Beno and Ife's love and devotion is legendary, and the poem used to be quoted quite frequently during courting ceremonies, before T'Chaka became King. Of course, the story ends quite differently, if you ask the Jabari about it.  
>  \- I don't think appropriate terms exist in the English language to accurately describe what the dynamic of all the genders in Wakanda would be like, after centuries of isolation. I don't think it would be perfect; I don't think it would be familiar to me at all.


End file.
